What a crazy conglomeration of events we’ve got scheduled next week, all catering to the legal eagles out there.  I’m out of breath just listing them all.  Here’s the rundown:

*Just added*
Vermont Law School Admissions Visit
Tuesday, 11/15, at noon
E23 Machmer

Vermont Law School boasts the most respected environmental law program in the country.  Come meet with a VLS Admissions counselor to learn more about the school.

Color of Justice panel
sponsored by the National Association of Women Judges
Wednesday, 11/16, 3:00 – 5:30 pm
Western New England University School of Law (Springfield, Mass.)

A truly unparalleled opportunity to meet and hear from over a dozen female judges and attorneys about their career paths and experiences.  Click through the title for the list of jurists at all levels of our state judiciary — from the Supreme Judicial Court on down to several local trial courts. (I’m so excited about this one, I’ll be heading down to Western New England myself!)

* Just added *
CMASS Law Night
Thursday, 11/17, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Wilder Hall 201

Hear the success stories of ALANA students  from UConn Law and Western New England Law, and get your questions answered by the admissions directors from both schools (as well as your faithful pre-law advisor). Brought to you in part by the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success (CMASS).

Lawyer-Alum career talk: Carrie Pollak, Esq.
Friday, 11/18 at noon
W13 Machmer

You’ll definitely want to hear UMass alum Carrie Pollak (Legal Studies and English ’04, Cornell Law ’08) talk about her experiences in both a very large law firm in Boston, and her current mid-size firm in Ithaca, New York.  Attorney Pollak, a former Army National Guard soldier, practices in the areas of environmental law and land use regulation.

UMass Mock Trial: Second Annual Thanksgiving Classic Invitational Tournament
Friday 11/18 – Sunday 11/20
Isenberg School of Management

Come see a dazzling display of legal skills from over two dozen teams, as they battle it out in a criminal trial.  Come for one round, or come for all four.  Rounds start Friday at 6:30 pm, Saturday at 9 am and 2 pm, and Sunday at 9 am.  This is for anybody who has ever thought about trying out for Mock Trial, or who just wants to watch some excellent trial skills in action.

1. LSAT prep. These last few weeks are critical, and study and practice for the LSAT must remain your number one priority.  (But don’t forget to taper during that last week — no practice tests after 9/27!)  If you haven’t taken a full-length timed practice test yet, you’re behind and you should do so immediately.  Remember that you want the entire test experience to be very familiar to you when you walk in the door on October 1st. If you’re considering rescheduling until December, let’s talk — email me for an appointment so we can discuss your options.

2. Get some things off your plate and onto someone else’s. In particular, get your recommenders working on your letters of recommendation and get your transcript request into the Registrar’s office. (IMPORTANT: You CANNOT request your transcript on SPIRE — you MUST request it in person or by mail.)  You can keep studying for the LSAT while your recommenders and the Registrar’s office are working for you.

3. Review the Application Check List to get a sense of what’s ahead in October. It’s all manageable, but it’s good to know ahead of time what you’ll be working on after the LSAT is over.  Do not worry yet about your personal statement and other materials — you’ll have time for those after the LSAT.  Keep your focus on the LSAT right now.

4. Schedule a meeting with the Pre-Law Advisor. If you haven’t met with me yet, a meeting might help reduce some of your stress.  If you just have a few questions, don’t hesitate to email me.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the annual pre-law advisors’ conference is hearing law school admissions officials share their craziest application stories — personal statements, follow-up emails and other applicant encounters that are so unimaginably outrageous that the panel is titled “You’re Not Going to Believe This.”  The behavior described is truly beyond the pale, so I’m not really worried that any of you — reasonably sane UMass Amherst students and alumni — would actually engage in anything remotely approaching this nuttiness. Rather, the panel is revealing for another reason: it makes clear each year just how much information the admissions officers are gathering about you.  You’re no doubt planning to make your application package as convincing and respectable as possible.  You may even be double-checking the privacy settings on your Facebook profile just now.  But the admissions officials go well beyond this low-hanging fruit.  You should assume that every encounter you have with anyone affiliated with the law school, every online uttering you publish, every step you take, every move you make… well, you get the idea. They’re watching you.

So what does that mean for how you conduct yourself over the next year of application madness (and beyond)?  I’ve got a few tips.

Be professional. Getting the runaround from some bored low-level staffer in a law school admissions office?  Remain calm and polite.  Any venting you might engage in will no doubt be noted in your file.  This is good practice for being a lawyer — it’s a remarkably small law world out there, and lawyers have long memories. (And low-level staffers — in courts, law firms and elsewhere — wield a tremendous amount of power.  Much more than law students and new attorneys.)  This is really easier than you can imagine: just be a good person.

Google yourself. How’s that internet profile looking? Drunk party pix and curse-filled twitter rants?  They can’t all be attributed to that girl in Iowa who has your exact same name.  Law school admissions officers only need a few more details about you to narrow the search anyway (and, thanks to your application, they possess a LOT more details about you).  Clean up your online persona.  (After you google yourself, try googling “clean up online profile” for endless links to helpful tips.)

Don’t assume you’re anonymous. So my favorite story at the conference this year came from the admissions director at a “top law school.”  He revealed that his office monitors references to his law school on the forums of  “top law school dot com” (a site I refuse to link to, due to the copious amounts of misinformation found therein). When a series of posts by one “anonymous” user were brought to his attention — posts maligning his own institution with any number of misrepresentations — he did a little sleuthing.  Based on the information the individual had posted about himself in the forums, the admissions director was able to easily match the poster to one of his applicant files. You can guess the rest.

Remember that you never know who you might run into.  In real life, I mean.  Offline.  As in the virtual world, be professional, don’t assume you’re anonymous, and don’t assume that person you’re talking to isn’t affiliated with a law school you hope to attend.

You’ve just received your June LSAT score, and it’s not what you’d hoped.   What’s next for you — a retake  in October or December, applying with the June score, or putting off law school for another year?

To seriously answer the question of whether you should retake the exam, it’s important to first honestly assess what happened with this test administration:

• Did you prepare as well as could have been expected, given all the other constraints on your time — learning the exam inside out, repeatedly practicing individual sections, and taking several full-length practice tests?  Or did you kind of blow off your prep, what with end-of-semester demands and whatnot?  Can you realistically expect to prepare substantially differently in the months remaining before the October 1st test?
• Did anything happen around the time of the test that would adversely affect your performance — a breakup, illness, family crisis, extraordinary lack of sleep, a monumental hangover?
• Did you face serious unexpected test anxiety, unlike anything you had experienced in prior standardized tests?  Shaking hands, inability to focus, paralyzing nervousness?

In the absence of obviously inadequate preparation, an unforeseeable disaster, or unexpected serious test anxiety, you are unlikely to increase your score by more than the 2-3 points that is the LSAC average for retakers. More sobering is that, historically, as many as 25-30% of retakers who scored 140-159 on their first test received either the same or a lower score the second time around. (More detail on the retake statistics available here.)  Also note that your last month of preparation coincides with the first month of the semester (if you’re still in school) — can you realistically maintain your focus on LSAT prep at that time?

Beyond the questions above, you need to consider how law schools regard multiple LSAT scores.  Some schools average the score (as LSAC used to recommend, until about 5 years ago), while others give you the benefit of the higher score.   So a 4 point jump, at some schools, becomes only a 2 point jump. All schools see all scores.

Next you should weigh the potential benefit of a higher score against the potential cost of getting your applications in later in the admissions season.  This is not a big concern if you take the October LSAT, which is still early enough in the admission cycle not to make much of a difference (although you should double-check the LSAT deadline for schools’ early admission programs). If you postpone your retake until December, you should take into consideration that most law schools make decisions on a rolling basis, and earlier applications are, in general, more successful than later applications.  If you take the December test, your score will be available after the holidays, so your application will not be reviewed until January (assuming you complete the rest of your application by then).  With your current (June 2011) score, you can apply right at the beginning of the admissions season.

Finally, take a minute to step back from the consideration of this one facet of your application process to think again about why you are applying to law school in the first place, and what you hope to get out of the experience (and investment).  Your LSAT score has an impact on where you to go law school, certainly.  But it rarely has the power to determine whether you go to law school at all, and it says nothing about what kind of lawyer you will be.  Yes, some schools are more selective than others, at least as far as that can be measured with median GPAs and LSATs.  But the 200+ ABA-approved law schools are far more similar than they are different, and all will prepare you well for legal practice.  A less selective school is not a lower quality school, not by any meaningful measure: a school’s median LSAT has nothing to do with the quality of instruction, the rigor of its clinical programs, or even its reputation among hiring attorneys.

In short, your lower than expected LSAT score might send you to a different law school from the ones you’d been contemplating, but it has no necessary relationship whatsoever to how successful you’ll be as a law student or lawyer.

If you want to talk through your particular situation, please feel free to contact me personally.

Until there’s a better waiting song, I’m sticking with Tom Petty to make my point.  Except we should change up the lyrics a bit: the wait list is the hardest part.

You can find my basic advice for what to do when you find yourself on a wait list here on the main website.  But the harder part for most applicants is dealing with the uncertainty.  You probably assumed that by this time, or at least by early April, you’d know what your range of options was and be able to make an informed and mostly rational choice about which school to attend.  Instead, you’re facing some definite yeses (I hope!), some definite nos (because that’s life) and then one or more maybes. Worse still, one of those maybes is perhaps from your first choice school, or a total reach school that now is, amazingly, keeping you hanging on the line.  How do you make a decision with so much uncertainty?  Is there anything you can do to decrease the uncertainty — to gain some clarity of your chances at those schools that have wait listed?

The answer to the last question is, sadly, probably not.  Most schools won’t know whether they’re going to hit their own wait lists until a week or so after their seat deposit deadline.  From the admissions offices’ perspectives, this is called “enrollment management” — the attempt to hit just the right number of accepted offers of admission that will produce a favorable yield and an appropriate class size.  Due to all the factors that go into admission — size and quality of the pool at their school and at other competing schools, the size and quality of their hoped for entering class, the broader economy, etc. — enrollment management is often more art than science.  This means that seemingly basic questions — Will the school go to its wait list this year? How deep? — are nearly impossible for the law schools to answer at this point in the process.

Bottom line for applicants: wait lists are their own special brand of hell.  Rejection would at least give you some closure.  Wait lists keep you hoping. (Or maybe Crying, Waiting, Hoping, as the Beatles would have it.)

So, in addition to following up with the school(s) that waitlisted you, you also need to start making some hard decisions about your more definite options.  In all likelihood, the seat deposit deadline(s) for the school(s) that accepted you will arrive before you hear about the wait list(s). Unless you’re thinking about not attending law school at all in the Fall, you will need to place a seat deposit at one of the schools that accepted you.

So make good use of this time period.  Visit all of the schools. Ask the questions that will help you decide which school is right for you.  Research each option carefully.  And invest a few hundred dollars in a seat deposit, even though there’s a chance you might forfeit it because your dream school just might pick you off the wait list.

But as the months progress through late spring and into summer, it’s important to acknowledge that your chances of getting in off of a wait list will diminish, and to start planning to attend that school you placed your deposit at.  Law schools have been known to let applicants know about wait lists as late as the first week of classes.  (This past year, an alum told me he got his official rejection from a school he was waitlisted at in early September — a week after classes began.)

Meanwhile, feel free to distract yourself by posting your favorite waiting song in the comments.

Tuesday, Feb. 8th at 2:30 pm
Wednesday, Feb. 9th at 5:30 pm
620 Thompson

Juniors and others thinking of applying for Fall 2012 admission to law school are strongly encouraged to attend one of these sessions.  You’ll get a comprehensive overview of the admissions process, including deciding (for sure) whether you want to attend, researching law schools, LSAT prep, letters of recommendation, personal statements, and more!

Please attend one of the sessions before making a one-on-one appointment, if possible.

It’s not much like Spring out there today, on this first day of classes, is it?

Regardless of the weather, it’s that time of year when students and alums who are thinking about applying to law school for Fall 2012 (a year and a half from now) should move from “thinking about” to “planning.”  At the top of your brand new law school application to-do list is planning for the LSAT: when are you going to take it and how will you prepare for it.  But there are a number of other items you should be thinking about as well.  To help orient you, I’ll be presenting Fall 2012 Application Info Sessions the week of 1/31 (i.e., the first week of February) — these sessions will give you an overview of the application process as well as provide you with time lines and check lists for the admissions cycle.  (For a preview, check out the soon-to-be-updated time line and check list on the pre-law blog.)

Look for the details of the info sessions to appear soon on the Events page as well as on the blog.

Current applicants (for Fall 2011) should have completed and submitted your applications by now.  If you haven’t, this should be your absolute top priority right now.  If you have, you need to turn your attention to your financial aid applications.  In order to complete the FAFSA and any individual school’s forms, you’ll need to complete your tax return for 2010.  Remember that for law schools, the FAFSA is not generally used to determine need-based aid (since there isn’t a lot of that), but to determine how much the school will certify you to borrow.  If the law school ends up overestimating your capacity (and underestimating what you need to borrow), call the financial aid office immediately to discuss your situation — in all likelihood, they will be very helpful.

All students and alumni, regardless of where you are in the application process: please note that my office hours are now available to all — I’m happy to meet with you to discuss anything from how to figure out whether law school is right for you to which offer of admission you should accept, and every step in between.  Just email me for an appointment, or take your chances and drop by during my regular office hours.

Finally, if you haven’t already, “Like” my Facebook page.  The blog feeds directly to the page, and I also post a number of smaller items directly to Facebook.  It’s the most efficient way to keep informed about law school, legal careers, and the pre-law advising office. You can also use the discussion section to connect with other applicants — share LSAT materials, prep together, organize a law school tour, etc.

I’m looking forward to working with all of you!

It’s been a busy application season here, with many of you having already completed your applications.  Some of you have even already received admission offers — congratulations!!  Many more of you, though, are still working your way through drafting personal statements and pulling together the rest of your applications.  And some of you are just eager to get started planning for your Fall 2012 admission to law school.  Here are some last tips of the year for all of your, as well as some additional information about my availability over the break.

Already submitted your applications? Don’t forget updated transcripts and financial aid applications!
If you already submitted your applications, you still need to keep on track.  In particular, if you’re still in school, you need to request a new transcript to be sent to LSAC with your fall grades — every law school requests this updated information.

As soon as possible after the first of the year, you’ll need to complete your taxes as quickly as possible (and, if applicable, urge your parents to do the same) so you can complete your financial aid applications.

Remember throughout the next few months that the law schools absolutely want to hear about any updates to your information — an award on scholarship, a job promotion, completion of your thesis — anything that might positively impact your application.  Simply draft a letter with the information and send it off to the law schools where your application is pending.

Still haven’t quite finished your applications?
Crunch time has arrived.  Get those pesky finals out of the way and finalize everything now! Valuable weeks of downtime are lost around the holidays — recommenders out of touch, registrar’s office moving more slowly, family wanting to actually spend time with you (the nerve!) — and you really don’t want your applications being further delayed as a result.  I’m still available via email and by appointment if you need assistance with your personal statement or have questions about any other aspect of the process.

If you took the December LSAT….
You still shouldn’t delay!  You want your score to be the last thing the schools are waiting for in order to review your application.  If the December test was a retake, then you’ll need to advise each school that there is another score coming in and that you’d like them to hold your application for review until it arrives.

Contemplating the February 2011 LSAT for Fall 2011 admission?
Then it’s time to start considering waiting a year before applying.  Why?  First, because many schools don’t accept the February LSAT for that fall’s admission.  Second, for most other schools, your score will put you so late in the rolling admissions process that it seriously diminishes your chances. Waiting a year will not hurt your chances of admission at all (and could help in other ways as well) — so before signing up for the February LSAT, you should think through your options carefully.  Much depends on where you’re thinking of applying, and whether February would be a retake or your first time.  Feel free to make an appointment if you’d like to discuss your individual situation further.

Juniors and others applying for Fall 2012 admission
I’m looking at you.  And you.  Yes, and you over there, hiding behind your laptop.  In January, it will be time to start getting serious about your law school plans — in particular, when to take and how to prepare for the LSAT, how to obtain persuasive letters of recommendation, and how to choose where to apply to school. Look for an updated time line and check list here on the blog, and announcements about application info sessions just after the start of the Spring semester.

Hours for winter and spring
With the end of the Fall semester comes the end of restricted appointments.  Beginning in January, all my office hours are open to all students (and alumni), regardless of when you are thinking of applying to law school — even if you’re just trying to figure out whether law might be the right path for you.  Spring semester hours (beginning January 18th) will be posted in January.  During the break, I will be on campus most days, but will see students by appointment only.  As always, the virtual office (prelaw@acad.umass.edu) is always open.  If you have questions about your current year applications, or about future plans, feel free to email me.

Have a great break!

Really, this is several tips in one, and they all boil down to refraining from arguing.

1. Don’t use your personal statement to argue for your admission to X law school. That’s not what it’s for.  Let all of your materials together make that argument, by the sheer weight of your demonstrable fabulousness.  Your personal statement is not about making the case.  It’s about showing the readers what experiences and perspectives you’ll bring to their law school community and to what they like to think of as a three-year-long conversation.

2. Don’t think for a minute, and certainly don’t write, that your love of arguing is why you should go to law school. I can’t make this point better than the Yale Law School Dean of Admissions has in her blog:

[O]n a conceptual level, the “I Love to Argue” P.S. seems to be based on the mistaken notion that it’s actually good, or relevant, that you love to argue.  It’s not.  Going on and on about how you love being confrontational and argumentative with each and every person in your life is a major red flag for the reader of your file.  It’s a character flaw.  If you love to argue, and even admit that you do so over petty, irrelevant things, you suggest to the reader that you are reactionary, a poor listener, unable to relate to different perspectives, and that you are generally an unpleasant person to be around (and to have in a class).  The fact that you think it’s an asset suggests that you lack self-awareness and are going to have problems getting along with others.  In other words, you are going to be a social and administrative (if not academic) nightmare.  Not so good.

3. Don’t argue that your LSAT doesn’t accurately represent your aptitude, that your GPA would have been higher if…, or that your lengthy disciplinary record is no reflection of your sense of community and responsibility. These all may be true.  But present facts that tend to refute the presumption(s) your record creates.  This will be far more persuasive than your mere recitation of your view of the matter.  Show the admissions committees your abysmal SAT score contrasted with your stellar GPA to indicate your past experience with standardized tests.  Tell them what happened that semester your GPA took a nosedive.  Show them the ways in which you’ve demonstrated your commitment to community since that period in life when you were throwing parties in your dorm every weekend. (And each of these belongs in the appropriate addendum, NOT in your personal statement.)

CORRECTION!! LSAC has contacted me to CORRECT the information I received from them and posted on Monday.  The following is the corrected version, and the bottom line is that you CANNOT use SPIRE to request your transcript for LSAC.

Several of you have asked whether you can use the new online transcript request process through SPIRE to have your transcript sent to LSAC.  I have just confirmed with LSAC that you may NOT use this process, which involves the Registrar sending out your transcript directly to LSAC without the official LSAC Transcript Request Form.  LSAC requires the Transcript Request Form in order to match your transcript to your LSAC account. Accordingly, you must either take the Transcript Request Form to the Registrar’s office in Whitmore or mail it to them.  When you mail or hand-deliver your transcript request, you must also fill out the Registrar’s form, available here.

So NO, you cannot order your transcript to be sent to LSAC via SPIRE.